Syria asks the UN to stop US strike

Washington says over 1,400 people, many of them children, have been killed in the world's worst use of chemical arms

Syria has asked the United Nations to prevent “any aggression” against Syria following a call over the weekend by US President Barack Obama for punitive strikes against the Syrian military for last month's chemical weapons attack.

Washington says more than 1,400 people, many of them children, were killed in the world's worst use of chemical arms since Iraq's Saddam Hussein gassed thousands of Kurds in 1988.